


there's more than one answer to these questions

by cinderlily



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, a few seasons down the row
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 04:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9476627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: Mike decides to retire.





	

**Author's Note:**

> "There's more than one answer to these questions  
> Pointing me in a crooked line  
> And the less I seek my source for some definitive (The less I seek my source)  
> Closer I am to fine" 
> 
> Indigo Girls 'Closer to Fine'

They made it through the first round. It was a Cinderella run or would have been if it had gone much further. They weren’t made for it and Mike knew it. He also knew, without a shadow of a doubt, there was no more gas in his tank. It had taken every ounce of his strength to play and he had spent way too much time in a tank of ice, hoping to eek out another game, another inning. 

He hadn’t told anyone but his agent, who’d told Oscar, but Clean Out Day was pretty bittersweet. Blip was his usual talkative self, pushing at Mike and saying things like, “We’ll get 'em next year.” Mike nodded at him and tried his best to avoid from telling him that there would be no next year. 

After the scrum, the stupid amount of questions that all boiled down to ‘Why do you think you didn’t make it?’, and after most of the guys had left, Mike still lingered. He put a hand on his nameplate, rubbing his thumb back and forth to clear off any of the lint that built up through the year. 

To say he was okay with it was a lie. To say he was ready for it was also a lie, but to say that he was at peace with it was pretty close to the truth. He’d had his run, he’d gotten close. He hadn’t gotten his ring, but he’d played his years with as much honor as he could and he made it with the same team.

He was, and always would be, a son of the Padres and that meant something. To him, to the fans. It was worth it. 

He left his empty locker behind and didn’t look back. It wasn’t worth it. 

*

The announcement was saved until a few weeks after the World Series. He didn’t want it to be a huge thing, didn’t want a circus. He was totally okay with going out with a whimper. (The only exception would have been going out with a ring.) 

He let his agent organize it, but he wrote the speech. It had been almost 18 years, he was allowed to be a little melodramatic if he wanted to be. 

“I can’t say to you what this team, this franchise, and these fans have meant to me. I can’t explain what getting up every day and walking into this park has given me. I have gained a family and I am never going to forget a moment of these last 18 years. I am full of mixed feelings but I know that not only is this the best thing for the team but also for me. 

It’s time for me to start the next chapter of my life. I just hope that the joy that this team brought me has been reciprocated in kind. 

Thank you so much.” 

The flashing lights were a little blinding but he tried not to flinch. He wasn’t quite sure if he was supposed to be smiling or not so he tried a mixed look. He was sure he’d had the pictures in the morning but it didn’t entirely matter. After almost a year of deciding on doing it, months of thinking about it and weeks of dreading it, it ended up feeling good to have it done. 

He answered a few questions, none that really meant anything and fewer that had any lasting impressions on him. He knew how to bullshit with the best of them. He put on his best smile, joked as best as he could and with that it was over. He was no longer a baseball player, he was a _retired_ baseball player. It was a lot less emotional than he’d thought it would be. He didn’t stumble out of the room and cry. 

Rather, he walked out of the room, was escorted to his car and turned on the radio. It was playing something upbeat and poppy, a band he didn’t recognize which didn’t shock him. He still liked what he liked from ten years ago, the new stuff he could take or leave. 

He would plug his phone in and listen to music, but his phone was currently buzzing consistently on his drivers’ seat. He didn’t see who it was, never bothered checking even at lights. It just kept vibrating. He kept his hands on the steering wheel and hummed along to the songs he continually didn’t know. He felt… good. 

When he got to his destination was when he truly hesitated. He sat in his car for a minute debating with himself whether he should take a breather or not. The logical side of him said that he was being hasty, he’d just done something that was heightened in emotion and it wasn’t healthy to jump to another big thing. The less rational and thus larger part of him was saying, “Fuck it” over and over in his ear. 

He listened to the louder side. 

He reached the door and hit the doorbell, hearing a dog barking and a woman’s voice hollering and he smiled. It seemed familiar but also exciting and new. He backed up a foot because he did know the routine well enough.

The door opened and a large brown lab jumped out at him, just as Ginny went to grab for his collar. 

“Hey Chewie,” he said, leaning down and only slightly regretting it. “Hey buddy.” 

His face was soon covered in dog kisses and snuffling. He put his hand out and grabbed the lead on his back, inching him back a little and into the house. When he stood back up he did so with a grunt, not his finest moment, but it was worth it to see Ginny staring at him like he was a circus clown. 

He put both hands out. “Surprise.” 

“You… you retired,” she said, her voice slipping over the last word. 

“Yup,” he said, nodding and smiling. 

He did not expect the rather strong smack of a pitcher’s arm hitting him over and over again. “You RETIRED and you couldn’t give me a freaking heads up? I had to hear about it on MLB TV?” 

“Ginny, GINNY,” he said, holding up his hands. “I’m sorry?” 

“You better be sorry. And where is your phone, I’ve been calling you for half an hour.” 

He picked the phone out of his pocket and saw that he had missed 8 calls from Ginny, intermixed with any number of other ones. “I was on the road, safe driving” 

“When has that EVER been a thing with you before, Lawson?” 

Mike frowned, Chewie was pouncing on him and this was entirely not going how he had planned it to go. “I was trying to get _here_.” 

Ginny tilted her head at him. “You were trying to get here, _why_?” 

“I’m not your teammate anymore,” he grinned, his face feeling tight with the force of the smile. “Hell, I’m not even a _player_ anymore.” 

She rolled her hand like he’d forgotten something. “Aaaaand?” 

He deflated slightly, the smile going down and he froze. “I thought… maybe. I mean. We could…” 

“Just do it on the floor, right here? Chewie watching?” she put a hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side. “Just because we aren’t co-workers anymore?” 

“No,” he shook his head. He had had ideas of a conversation in the car. Romance, and you know “That isn’t what I meant… I meant… Date? Maybe? Go on one, I mean. We could go on a date.” 

A painfully long pause followed before Ginny put her hand on her face. The laugh that erupted from her was enough to make Chewie bark. “Your face. Oh man. If I had a camera.” 

“What?” 

Ginny took a step forward. “You, are a complete freak. You waited two years to ask me on an actual date because of a rule I made up in the minors. You have been my best friend for _two years_. 

“Yes, I will go on a damn date with you. I don’t think you are some sort of jackass who takes advantage of people. But you could have called me to tell me about the press conference. Or that you were retiring. I would have like… showed up.” 

She leaned up slightly to kiss his nose and then his cheek and then punched him in the shoulder again, gentler this time. 

“I found out from _Eric Byrnes_ , Mike.” 

His brain was slowly coming around to the conversation and to the fact that maybe she had a fair point. He just… he’d had a plan. 

“I had a plan,” he tried to clarify, remembering bits of the speech he’d had mastered ten minutes prior. “I wanted you to know I wasn’t retiring for you. I was retiring for me. But I respected your no player rule. And I respected you, as a person. And I liked our friendship, so if you weren’t comfortable I was more than okay with staying there. I just… wanted more with you. Selfishly.” 

He gently leaned and waited for a second for any sign of hesitation and when none was given he gave her a quick kiss. It had been years in the making but worth the wait, even with the handful of times they’d come close, and the painful amount of times he’d seen her kiss others. But he pulled back and she was smiling at him. 

“Date?” 

“Date,” he said. 

“When? Cause I’m free in like… ten minutes. Just so you know,” she said, pulling on her oversized Padres shirt. “Unless you’re okay with me scrubbing it.”

He totally was, but he shrugged. “Fifteen minutes? I’ll take Chewie for a W-A-L-K so he gets some energy out.” 

She laughed and when he gave her a look she shrugged. “You’ve been treating my dog like _our_ dog since I got him. You are pretty, but you are also pretty dense, Old Man.” 

“Worth the wait?” he asked. 

She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Ask me _after_ the date.” 

Fair enough. He was going to have to up his game. 

Now he had the time to, and she was more than worth the time.

**Author's Note:**

> A silly little story that came to me in one night. Thanks Lucifern for reading over it for me. <3


End file.
